The three main activities of organized crime -- drugs, gambling, and vice -- are addressed, and a multitude of subsidiary rackets, including shoplifting and arson, dominated largely by the same networks are described. The establishment of the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence (ABCI) is reported, and obstacles facing the ABCI are identified; for example, the limitation of police powers makes it difficult for police to get at the ringleaders of organized crime, who insulate themselves from the actual possession of drugs or commission of crimes. Establishment of a crimes commission is concluded to be worth trying, but only if it focuses on manipulating the structure of criminal markets and criminal organizations (as opposed to being another police force) and only if its impacts on civil liberties are monitored and evaluated after a 'sunset' period. State crime commissions in the United States are described, and the need for any crime commission to have an analytic mission is cited. Further, a crimes commission based on the fundamental tenets of Australian democracy is considered, and the establishment of a parliamentary committee on crime control is recommended. Finally, future directions in the investigation of crime are explored, and arguments against the formation of the crimes commission are included. Two tables and approximately 70 references are provided.